Aurizon extends new Casa Berardi zone

Underground definition drilling at the Casa Berardi project in northwestern Quebec has extended one of the target zones eastward.

Owner Aurizon Mines (ARZ-T) drilled a series of holes into Zone 115 from an exploration drift on the 550-metre level of the mine. The zone is now known to be about 100 metres horizontally, and is open eastward along strike.

Out of 20 holes drilled into the zone, 12 intersected significant gold mineralization. The zone, about 250 metres east of the planned shaft, is a nearly flat-lying quartz vein, with a shallow south dip.

The mineralized intersections ranged from 1.3 to 26.9 metres long, most being around 2 to 5 metres. The lowest average grade reported was 5.5 grams per tonne, with the better intersections including a 26.9-metre interval running 15.6 grams gold per tonne, a 5.9-metre interval running 25 grams, and a 6.3-metre interval running 19.6.

The zone, discovered in 2002, has not been brought into the project’s resource figure yet. Aurizon plans to calculate an estimate later in the year.

Aurizon has been doing underground exploration on the property in anticipation of bringing the mine, which was in production between 1988 and 1997, back into operation. It received a positive external feasibility study in February that recommended production at 150,000 oz. gold per year, with capital costs of $84 million and cash production costs of US$233 per oz.

The company now has two underground drills testing the continuity of known resources on Zone 118, east and down-dip from Zone 115, and a third testing extensions of Zone 113, near the planned shaft. Revised resource estimates on Zone 113 and another zone, 109, are being calculated. More work is planned on a new discovery about 2 km west of the Casa Berardi West mine, which Aurizon drilled earlier in the year.

Current reserves at the project stand at 4.9 million tonnes grading 6 grams gold per tonne. There are indicated resources, not yet brought into reserves, of 1.6 million tonnes grading 9.2 grams per tonne, and inferred resources of 5.6 million tonnes at 6.5 grams per tonne.